CleverDonkey.com …Musings, Commentary, Opinions, and Drivel

Garage Door Doctor

Vince Johnson

Repair Specialist

New Installation

Openers

281-578-7659

Houston, TX

I always like to give local people and places props on our website when I can, and I’m long overdue to put some good words about the Garage Door Doctor up here.

Our mid-80′s Heights garden house (think townhouse, but with no shared walls and an apron of land) is a cute almost-Victorian affair, with wood siding, fishscale details, and lots of white trim. When we bought the house, it included some very heavy custom-made wooden garage doors, which steadily deteriorated in the moist Houston humidity (so has the wood siding, but replacing it is a task for another time). Finally it got to the point that Scott wouldn’t let me walk under the doors while they were moving for fear they might finally disintegrate and fall on my head.

We finally called the Garage Door Doctor at the recommendation of our friend Bruce, and boy

• Leave a comment... (0)

The Heights Spa

440 W 19th St

Houston, TX 77008

(713) 864-8088

The ambitiously titled Heights Spa is really still just a nail shop, but it’s a nice one. And so far, it’s worth its slightly higher price versus its assembly-line acrylic competitors. The shop is on 19th, in the new section of strip shopping centers just a few blocks west of Yale & all the antiques shops. It tries (and succeeds) for a calm ambiance — the smallish space feels cozy and serene, with curving walls, all indirect lighting, and soothing sage and earth tones throughout.

Their services include manicures, pedicures, facials, and waxing, but I’ve only done the manicure/pedicure route there so far. The shop, although small, is already expanding into the space next door to accomodate its healthy business. Their ‘spa pedicure’ is a little more expensive than other spots (about $40) but it’s worth it: sea salt scrub-down, mint mask, and

• Leave a comment... (0)

The existence of this movie fills me with happiness and awe at the creative audacity of the human race. If you don’t know anything about this movie (although I’m not sure how you would find this review otherwise), and you have an open mind about movies, I urge you to stop reading and go see it before reading any further.

Go on, go.

When I ask if you have an open mind about movies, what I mean is can you set aside preconceptions about what movies should be and just experience what’s on the screen in the spirit in which it is given? Rober Ebert summed it up best in his review of this film, in which he said that to enjoy this film you have to not so much care what it is about, but you must care HOW it is about what it is about. Bubba Ho-tep is an amazing

• Leave a comment... (0)

This excellent swashbuckler borders on being an epic, but actually doesn’t try to be. It tells a medium-sized story (not big, not small) about a particular ship of the British Navy (during the Napoleonic Wars) on a particular mission (to sink or capture a bigger, faster French ship). It tells this story very, very well. The British ship, the Surprise, is chasing the French ship, the Acheron, down the Atlantic side of South America, around the Cape, and back up the Pacific side. The Surprise is smaller and slower, with fewer guns, fewer men, and a thinner hull. The Acheron is bigger, faster, has twice as many men and guns, and has a hull that seems impenetrable by British cannon fire.

The captains seem equally matched from a naval tactics perspective. Much like the crew of the Surprise, we don’t get to see or know the French crew except as a

• Leave a comment... (0)

King Biscuit
1606 White Oak Dr
Houston, TX 77009
Phone: (713) 861-2328

The King Biscuit restaurant is tucked back in an old Houston Heights neighborhood along White Oak bayou. The menu is fairly extensive, including soups, salads, hamburgers, sandwiches, seafood, steaks, pork chops, etc, and the ambience is sort of kitschy-Heights. The building appears to have grown organically from an old gas station, and is tucked into a V in the road. There is almost zero designated parking, so you usually have to park on the streets of the surrounding neighborhood. There is a nice patio with a good view of the bayou, but it is usually infested with hard-core smokers making anything you eat out there taste like you’re licking it out of a used ashtray.

We have not been impressed with the food quality on our last couple of visits, and while the food isn’t terrible, it’s really nothing special. So, given the

• Leave a comment... (0)

Oh, man, did this movie suck. Directed and co-written by Jane Campion, it stars Meg Ryan in her birthday suit for the first time on film. We went hoping to see an erotic thriller, and we’re still hoping. Yes, Ms. Ryan does bare it all, but it was completely (to me) un-erotic…in fact, it was de-rotic. And there’s nothing thrilling or mysterious, other than the mystery of how long they can drag out the lame story, or the mystery of how many men that Meg Ryan’s character thinks is a psychotic killer will she be aroused by and sleep with over and over and over and over again. The only “ic” that this movie is is idiotic, and it is that in spades. Here are some examples:

Example #1: At the beginning of the movie Frannie (Meg Ryan’s character), a high school English teacher, meets one of her students at a

• Leave a comment... (0)